Showing results by narrator "L J. Ganser" in All Categories

Experience Jeremy Lin’s rise to basketball superstar, free for a limited time! Who would have thought that an Asian-American, who stood just 5' 3" tall as a freshman in high school, and eventually went to Harvard to major in economics, would become the NBA's most talked about star in decades? But that's exactly what happened to Jeremy Lin. Undrafted out of college and subsequently waived in short order by both the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, Lin was signed by the underachieving New York Knicks. The rest is history.

Harry Denton is behind on his rent, his phone bill, and his life. He is just about to close down his private investigation business when he finally gets a client. The job sounds like a simple one: photograph a famous self-help author with his mistress. When Harry finds him, however, the creator of Life's Little Maintenance Manual is very alone - and very dead.

In Extreme Cities, Ashley Dawson argues that cities are ground zero for climate change, contributing the lion's share of carbon to the atmosphere, while also lying on the frontlines of rising sea levels. Today, the majority of the world's megacities are located in coastal zones, yet few of them are adequately prepared for the floods that will increasingly menace their shores. Instead, most continue to develop luxury waterfront condos for the elite and industrial facilities for corporations. These not only intensify carbon emissions, but also place coastal residents at greater risk.

Here’s the truth: Thousands of businesses are started every hour of every day of every year. Most die, few thrive, and the rest struggle to survive - mainly through enormous effort, force of will, and luck. There is a better way to take the guesswork out of growth: focus on the few areas that make all the difference. Bill Flynn’s keen insights drawn from his personal experience, 30 years of studying business success, and speaking and working with hundreds of CEOs are neatly captured in Further, Faster.

Central Park is perhaps the most well-trod and familiar green space in the country. It is both a refuge from the city and Manhattan's very heart; a respite from the urban grind and a hive of activity all its own. Eight hundred forty-three carefully planned acres allow some 37 million visitors each year to come and get lost in a sense of nature. Unsurprisingly, the park also inspires a wealth of great writing, and here Andrew Blauner collects some of the finest fiction and nonfiction - 20 pieces in all.

In The Mysterious Murder of JFK's Mistress, Ron Rosenbaum investigates the murder of Mary Pinochet Meyer, whose affair with President John F. Kennedy became tabloid fodder, and who was found shot to death on October 12, 1964. Immediately after her death, one of the CIA's top priorities was finding the diary in which Meyer chronicled her relationship with the late president and the secrets they shared.

Beer is and has always been more than an intoxicating beverage. Its invention 13,000 years ago was one of the fundamental motivations for the domestication of grains around the world. In early states, the control over the technological knowledge and resources to produce beer contributed to social hierarchies. Beer even likely provided the capital to motivate laborers to construct the ancient pyramids and other large-scale public works. Beer is a social lubricant that brings people together.

When Jack Knight takes off in his biplane from North Platte, Nebraska, in 1921, hundreds of people crowd the airstrip. Is Jack transporting a famous passenger? Is he ferrying medicine for a sick child? Nope—Jack has six sacks of mail. For the past few years, biplanes like Jack's have been flying the mail only during daylight hours. Flying after dark is risky and crashes are too common, so lawmakers decide to cut funding for the US Air Mail Service. Outraged officials and pilots want to prove that flying the mail is best, so they concoct a plan—a coast-to-coast race.

After pulling off their latest train robbery, outlaw leader C. C. Ellis and his unruly gang of long riders set their sights on a new target—a rich mining operation. There are only two men who can stand in their way: Sheriff Max Boyd, a lawman who doesn’t always play by the rules, and Colonel Randolph Doss, the brutal security chief of the Colorado Western Express R.R. Co. Doss pursues Ellis like Ahab pursued the white whale, while Boyd pursues his aim of keeping the town standing … and even some of C.C.’s gang are secretly pursuing their own agendas.

Best-selling author James Rollins' action-packed thrillers have been favorably compared to those of Clive Cussler and Dan Brown. During midnight mass, the massive gothic cathedral in Cologne, Germany, is ransacked by armed monks, ancient relics are stolen, and hundreds of people are murdered. The Vatican secretly requests assistance from the U.S. Dept. of Defense Sigma Force. Commander Gray Pierce and his team begin a harrowing race against a heretical gnostic sect seeking to discover the true nature of the missing bones of the magi.

Today, everyone is familiar with Neil Armstrong's famous words as he first set foot on the moon: "one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind." But America's journey to the moon was anything but simple. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first satellite, into orbit; later that year, America's first attempt was such a failure that the media nicknamed it "Kaputnik." Still, we didn't give up. With each failure, we gleaned valuable information about what went wrong, and how to avoid it in the future. So we tried again. And again. And each time we failed, we failed a little bit better.

Jake Danser has it all: a beautiful wife, a house in the California hills, a high-profile job as a forensic psychologist. But he’s also got a mistress. And when Jake’s mistress is found strangled to death with his necktie, it’s up to him to prove he didn’t do it. But how can he, when all the evidence says he did?

Principles are natural laws, independent of our current belief systems. In this talk, learn the important distinction between living a principle-centered life and a value-centered life. Module 9 of 20.

ESPN the Company reveals the inside scoop on the biggest business story in sports, detailing the creative and innovative spirit and practices that drove the programming, products, and services of the most powerful and prominent name in sports media. The authors provide a behind-the-scenes perspective on how ESPN dealt with their many partners and how they handled mistakes and missteps along the way - from the humble beginnings of ESPN as an underrated startup to the pinnacle of their success as a major industry player.

It's the fall season and time for Ossie to make his annual southern migration from Portland, Maine to his winter nest down in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Ossie meets up with a variety of whimsical and zany friends, but needs to navigate around obstacles, foes, severe weather, poacher,s and pollution if he is to reach his southern home. At an air show, Ossie meets a female osprey named Onida....

There is only one CEO in recent times who has faced ¿ and succeeded at ¿ the extraordinary challenges of leading three major companies ¿ Gillette, Nabisco, and Kraft ¿ into prosperous futures by doing what matters on the fundamentals. That CEO is Jim Kilts. In this vivid first-person account he reveals his system for success that is both cutting-edge and back-to-basics.

There’s a hot rod race today at noon! But before the hamster can enter the big race, he must first find his perfect hot rod. Where will he ever find a car small enough for a hamster? Of course - at Dog’s Junk Yard! Dog tries to help Hamster, but there are so many cars for Hamster to choose from. Old car? New car? Or a shiny, glittering blue car? How will Hamster ever decide which is best for burning rubber?

Character alone cannot build trustworthiness. This lesson explains that to affect real change in yourself and others, you must also be competent. Module 5 of 20.

The Lone Star state has been a subject of pride and admiration for generations of writers. Forever Texas features the works of some of the most memorable men and women who ever lived in Texas. With essays by President George W. Bush, H. Ross Perot, Sam Houston, David Crockett, Stephen F. Austin, Lyndon Baines Johnson and many more.

An obsessive (if strange) pilgrimage to the late J.D. Salinger's New Hampshire sanctuary, where, if you listened closely, you could hear the sound of one man hiding. "The Catcher in the Driveway" was originally published in Esquire, June 1997.